All roads lead to Lakers three-peat.
That being said, basketball is incredibly unpredictable. The Lakers from top to bottom are ridiculously good, but someone or something may stand in their way en route to three-peat glory. If the Lakers are to maintain the O’Brien in Los Angeles for yet another year, they’ll have to keep in mind potential spoilers coming in and raining on their 2011 championship parade.
In an offseason for the ages, a trio representing the crème of the NBA crop now make South Beach their home, a familiar friend—now foe struts around with a shamrock on his back and a future MVP extended his contract to secure his spot as the centerpiece of a team, sure to make headlines in a once prominent Western Conference. Along with some other adversaries, they all vie to knock the champs off their throne.
The Lakers have been here before and have all the motivation in the world to remain on the top spot. In order to sustain their dominance over the NBA, they’ll have to turn the following five bumps into smooth sailing.
We’ll start with the pebbles.
Honorable Mention
Perimeter shooting: During the first five games of the preseason, the Lakers continued to struggle from downtown, shooting 25 percent (20-of-80). They won the title last season having shot poorly from beyond the arc, but it still remains an area of improvement.
The Bench: If impressions showed up on the box score, it would seem as though last year the Lakers’ bench gave up more points than they actually scored. The addition of Steve Blake, Matt Barnes and Theo Ratliff add depth last year’s “mob” didn’t quite carry throughout the season. How they come together and create cohesiveness as a unit could be significant to L.A.’s title hopes.
San Antonio Spurs: Early exits in the playoffs two years in a row could attribute to fresher legs over the course of the season for the Spurs. They’re still a force, still well coached and have been too quiet for too long.
Next: Laid-back style could prove costly No. 5 Complacency
“If he’s that hungry, I’m starving; I don’t think the mentality of the team is to sit back and get fat.”
-Matt Barnes on Kobe Bryant’s intensity going into the 2010-11 season
It seems silly to keep having to address the issue of complacency, when referring to any team of professional athletes, who get paid millions of dollars to leave it all out on the floor night in and night out. Now add the back-to-back champions tag, you figure the Lakers should be completely immune from any complacency-talk right?
Wrong.
Blame Los Angeles for being the reason the Lakers will forever be associated with a lackadaisical demeanor. It’s just the culture. Would it be nice if the Lakers got amped up to compete against more than just the big marquee teams? Sure. Do they have to? Not necessarily.
It’s a long season and in order for the Lakers to be victorious once again, they’ll have to figure out the perfect balance of maintaining focus and intensity. Finding motivation shouldn’t be hard considering a successful trip to the Finals means Phil Jackson completing yet another three-peat and the Lakers matching the Celtics in number of banners hanging above the rafters.
Next: A new Western power-house emerges
No. 4 The Oklahoma City Thunder
“They have some stallions over there…they’re really good. I mean, they just get up and down the floor. They’re very unique in that way. They broke us in the last game, just by their speed.”
-Kobe Bryant on the Oklahoma City Thunder post-game 6, NBA playoffs
If it weren’t for Pau Gasol’s put-back after a Kobe Bryant miss with just a few seconds remaining on the clock, Oklahoma City’s thunderous bunch would’ve forced a game 7 at the Staples Center. In all likelihood, the Thunder would’ve lost, but it was never the Lakers intention to be in a position where it was necessary to play seven games against an up-and-coming, first-time playoff bound squad, to advance to the second round.
Perhaps the Lakers couldn’t help it. After all, OKC was led by a prolific scorer in Kevin Durant and boasted a core group of talented young guys whose speed and athleticism ambushed the defending champs.
It appears as though next time around, the Thunder won’t only have experience to carry them through the series, they’ll have a new-found confidence as well. Throw in a rambunctious crowd and it could all add-up to disaster for the Lakers.
Next: The Chosen One, Flash and that other guy plan to de-rail the champs No. 3 The Miami Heat
“I always refer to when Wilt Chamberlain was traded from Philadelphia to Los Angeles and that put [Elgin] Baylor, [Jerry] West and Chamberlain together — three of the top scorers in NBA history — and they never won a championship together the four years they were together.”
-Phil Jackson on the Miami Heat’s mega free-agent acquisitions
Here’s what we know about the Miami Heat.
LeBron James is still LeBron James. Dwayne Wade is a flashy scorer who gets in-and-out of lanes almost as often as he puts up game-winning shots. Chris Bosh is an inside presence, but mostly a face-up shooter who can drive the ball a little bit.
Here’s what we know about the Lakers.
Ron Artest lives for the opportunity to defend guys like James. Kobe Bryant’s defense will hamper whatever easy offense Wade has in mind. Pau Gasol can dance circles around Bosh, reminding him that yes, he is still in fact the best power forward in the league.
So then why are they on the list? We know how each player is going to be individually, but until we see how all three play alongside one another with their role and bench players, the Heat remain a mystery.
Assume the bulk of the Heat’s offense will be based on pick-and-rolls and the abilities of James and Wade to read the defense and create plays on the fly. The Lakers will need to limit the number of turnovers they have against the Heat to prevent them from driving the basketball in the open floor. The Lakers are probably one of the better defensive teams in transition, but if the break involves James, we’re talking about trying to defend a freight-train on the fast-break.
Next: The perennial knees and other nagging injuries
No. 2 Kobe Bryant’s Knee and Other Injuries
“I’m old. It felt good enough to get thru the playoffs I’m obviously going to have to look at the knee and figure some things out…same thing with the finger, without the tape I can’t grip the basketball.”
-Kobe Bryant post-game 7, NBA Finals
To start the preseason, Bryant told the media his knee was at about 60 percent. A couple of nights later, he played just shy of 25 minutes and went 2-for-15. The next two games weren’t any better. Just before Lakers fans went into a frenzy, Bryant almost effortlessly scored 19 points in the third quarter going 7-for-12 and 2-for-4 from the arc against the Jazz. Then he had some more set-backs, Phil Jackson said he would limit his minutes to around 25 a night and off we were again on the rollercoaster-of-post-knee-surgery-Kobe.
Besides being the best closer in the game, Bryant commands the double, sometimes triple team, is an excellent perimeter defender and even when he can’t find his shot, takes the ball to the rim, draws the foul and ends up at the stripe. Oh and this just in, Bryant can rebound. His mere presence on the floor benefits the Lakers.
If their goal is to three-peat, the Lakers absolutely need Bryant playing at a high level.
Then there’s Andrew Bynum who wobbled around for most of the playoffs, told the press his knee would neither get better or worse by playing and matured before our eyes with his gutsy decision to play despite his injury.
Then he took a step back.
Bynum was over a month removed from the Lakers victory parade when he finally went under the knife to repair his bothersome knee and as it turns out, was worse than expected. Although he’s recently been cleared for non-basketball related activities, the shape in which he returns and more importantly how his knee holds up come playoff time, could be an issue.
The status of Lamar Odom’s left shoulder, Luke Walton’s back and other things that surface as the season progresses should also be of concern. Not to mention Gasol taking on extra minutes in Bynum’s absence and Derek Fisher not getting any younger.
Next: Familiar rivals, new line-up, big problems No. 1 The Boston Celtics
“The minute I heard Kobe [Bryant] say he had one more ring than Shaq, I said to Danny [Ainge], ‘Let’s go get Shaq,’ and it happened.”
-Wys Grousbeck, principal owner Boston Celtics, on acquisition of Shaquille O’Neal
There’s a reason why Doc Rivers continues to gripe about how his team would have won the O’Brien last year if it weren’t for the injury to Kendrick Perkins, and it’s not because he loves living in the past. It’s partly because he may be right. Of course, if Andrew Bynum had been healthy during the ’08 Finals—well, we can go on all day over this.
The bottom line is the Lakers get to hang banner No. 16 on opening night and the Celtics get to find out how their aging O’Neal’s match-up against the presumed No. 1 team in the East. What the Lakers have to contend with now is a Celtics team revamped to fit the model of—you guessed it—themselves.
The Celtics have sought out to salvage whatever small window of opportunity they have at securing another ring for the “Big Three,” by taking a page out of Mitch Kupchak’s book on general management. Get lenghtier.
Don’t think for one second that Kevin Garnett and Co. aren’t harnessing the sting of losing to the Lakers last June as motivation for the upcoming season. If they can stay healthy, they’ll continue to be a pain in the Lakers’ side.